Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 45 of 107

44 • SPONSORED CONTENT • MARCH 2018
THE
BEVERAGE
BOOM
Q. Tell me about your background.
Tobin Ellis: I've clocked 27 years
in hospitality operations in almost
every FOH position – most importantly
bartender – and have had a global
hospitality consulting firm for most
of that time. What started as helping
owners with beverage menus and bar-
tender training evolved into designing,
redesigning and refreshing beverage
design and operations. I realized that
the bar engine design was the missing
piece to enhance the beverage op-
erations of my growing client portfolio.
Most recently I collaborated with Perlick
on a signature line of award-winning underbar equipment that you
can find now in almost every sector of foodservice operations.
Q. How has equipment for the beverage industry evolved?
TE: Most of the equipment has not evolved much since the 1960s,
which is why we have reimagined every aspect of it. My signature
equipment line – engineered and manufactured by Perlick – solves
problems created by the beverage industry's evolution, most nota-
bly the fresh and craft cocktail movements, while also addressing
increased throughput and comfort for the high-volume bartender.
This is about improving basic work flows behind any bar when it
comes to ergonomics, efficiencies and throughput.
Q. What are aspects of bar design
that are often overlooked?
TE: True efficiency, holistic work flows,
realistic bartender movement, bloom
temperatures – it's a long list. The focus
should be on how to enhance workflows
to increase throughput, but also how to
elevate service and hospitality without
increasing labor cost or torturing the
bar staff. Every smart operator knows
profit comes from the bar, so much more
emphasis and greater resources should
be allocated to its design.
Q. Discuss your partnership
with Perlick.
TE: I had been specifying and designing
bars for eight years before joining forces
with Perlick. At that time in North America,
no equipment was being designed by a
bartender. Bars were painful to work behind and wildly inef-
ficient. The layouts create wasted motion and missing key com-
ponents. Bartenders come home with bruised shins, sore backs,
cuts and other injuries due to inefficient design and inadequate
equipment. Perlick and I set out to change that.
Q. What did these changes focus on?
TE: It was all about balancing the bartenders' and operators'
points of view. We focused on creating the most ergonomic bar-
tending station. That resulted in a cockpit design that surrounds
bartenders with the necessary tools and product. This minim izes
wasted motion, is inclusive of men and women of all heights and
reduces workplace injury from bending and reaching. We also
added unique functionality, such as insulated health compli-
ant separated jockey boxes for fresh juices, speed rails for all
size bottles, visco-elastic dampening pads on the bottom of
speed rails and ice bins to dull noise and vibration, sink foot
pedals and self-washing tool caddies. Bartenders and own-
ers also want the freedom to customize their equipment to the
available space, budgets and needs, so we made equipment
components that can be combined in millions of configurations.
We leveraged the best of my expertise in bartender mechanics
with beverage operations and Perlick's expertise at engineer ing
and manufacturing to build the most intelligent and comfortable
bartender station ever produced.
perlick.com
Bar Equipment and Design Magic
The collaborative effort of Tobin Ellis and Perlick spawned the Tobin Ellis Signature Cocktail Station, which
is described as "the tricked-out station that every serious bartender has dreamt about and every savvy
operator has hoped for."
A Q&A with Tobin Ellis,
hospitality design and op-
erations specialist, BarMagic
of Las Vegas